Nichee

good stuff. it's interesting that the bottom of the list is dominated by 1980s teams while most 2000s teams are near the top of the list, suggesting that rules changes has played a factor and football philosophy has changed as well, perhaps in response to the athletic freaks that now play DE and OLB. if you removed pass attempts of less than 3 yards (completed or not) and considered that today's response to rules changes/philosophy, I would anticipate the 1980s/2000s trend to be much less pronounced.

If you ever played defense - on any level - you had to love the hitting in this game.

This line is obnoxious: but really, everything you need to know about Super Bowl XLII happened on the Miracle Play To Be Named Later -- you know, the third down on the do-or-die drive when Eli Manning ripped himself away from the entire Patriots defensive line (THEY HAD HIS JERSEY!!!!!!) and threw a pass that hung in the air forever like one of those sports movie passes, and even though David Tyree and Rodney Harrison had an equal chance of getting it, Tyree jumped a little bit higher, hauled in the football, trapped it against his helmet and somehow held on while Harrison was doing everything but performing a figure-four leg lock on him. The Giants didn't score on that play. The Pats could have still held them out but they couldn't do it. So, no, you need to know more than that.

Right behind all the Super Bowl winners.

I think this has been a great Super Bowl. I'm far from bored.

So, I'm watching the highlights of "The Catch" game when I realize how much the officiating of the game has changed. After the catch on the ensuing last-ditch Cowboys drive, Drew Pearson gets horse-collared. Of course the rule doesn't exist then. Had it, it would have put the Cowboys on the fringe of FG range to win the game. And then on the game-ending sack/fumble of Danny White, I'm watching this play and I'm saying geez, that's the tuck rule right there. Should have been called incomplete pass. I guess that didn't exist then either. It just struck me as odd that 2 pivotal plays in what's considered one of the all-time great games would have been called so differently in today's game.

Asked on NFL net tonight who would win, 2007 Pats vs his old Cowboys teams, Emmitt said he'd give the Pats about an 80% chance to beat the 95 Cowboys. But he gave them zero chance to beat the 92-93 Cowboys. He didn't expound much but to say basically they would just line up and run it right at them, rendering all the pre-snap movement somewhat useless.

Agreed. I thought he was sure-fire, first-ballot material. He'll probably go in next year, I guess.

the first guy that jumps to mind behind rice is troy brown

if this game really is pitting the greatest team of all time vs the worst team to ever reach a super bowl, then it should be over sometime by the middle of the second quarter. but what if that doesn't happen?

A little statistical analysis of what Rivers faced showed, in my opinion, he needed more help from the running game. The Bolt ran the ball 16 times on first down, averaging 4.25 yards. That sounds great, but when looking at down and distances for 2nd downs, it's only moderate success. Three of those runs resulted in first downs, two 12-yard runs and one 5-yard run with a penalty tacked on. So, those runs started new series. Of the 13 first-down runs that didn't result in a first down on that play, the average gain falls to 3 yards with 7 of 13 plays resulting in 3 yards or less. Interestingly, the Chargers had 2 first down runs inside the 10 (both from the 9) and both gained 1 yard each. So, overall, Rivers averaged 2nd-and-7 after a first down run that didn't produce a 1st down. For a run-minded team like San Diego, that's OK. It's not bad. It's OK. To beat the Pats, they needed more than OK. His 3rd down situations were far from ideal. The average distance was 3rd-and-5.75. They included: 3 3rd-and-1s: 1 stuffed run, 1 21-yard completion, 1 incomplete and 7 3rd-and-longs: yard distances of 9,7,8,8,6,10,10 That's a lot of tough situations from a down-and-distance perspective.

Wow, 3 straight road playoff wins, knocking off Dallas and Green Bay on the way. Great job Giants and Eli.

that's exactly opposite of what i was saying. how did you get that from what i typed?

why would you congratulate the packers for not changing their game plan with 10 min left to play in the FIRST quarter? i don't think it takes a special team to do that. I think it takes a moron not to do that.

someone tell me how you run a screen, it isn't there, you roll out and throw deep, and there's not an illegal man downfield. no way - impossible